Bard's future

[aveyond-dreams]

Given the recent controversies with patch 6.1 I ended up resubbing to FFXI and naturally I got a chance to revisit that game's Bard, along with a number of other jobs. Granted I do not own nor will I ever own the entirety of FFXI Bard's list of songs, but it feels great using the ones I do have in order to buff my party and debuff my enemies. Almost like a support class!

Current Bard is still too much of a mess with its (alleged) niche being taken over by Dancer. I hope at some point we get a 4th ranged dps so we can have 2 support (Bard and Dancer) and two selfish ones like Machinist so that this class can finally feel like what it's supposed to be. I miss the days where singing Mage's Ballad to regen mana felt impactful back in ARR, along with Foe Requiem until those skills were changed completely if not outright removed.

In terms of dots, it is only natural for a music-based class to have some kind of association with damage over time. The problem is that multi-dotting dungeon packs was a nuisance without a Bard equivalent of Bane, and for a significant portion of the levelling experience having the dots be tied to song procs makes for unimpactful gameplay. Once you make it to higher levels this resolves somewhat, but back in Shadowbringers I still found myself waiting on procs that just never came.

When I use a song, I want for there to be a damage buff which is as strong as Dancer's or effects on par with Scholar's Expedience movement speed boost mid-battle. I want to be rewarded for maintaining debuffs like Foe's Requiem - not some cheap knockoff poisoned arrows or random wind attacks. The "arcane ranger" spin some of those attacks have are also atrocious, I'd rather arrow skills be arrow skills and music skills be music skills than trying to mishmash the two together in ways like Apex Arrow.

Please just let Bard be an actual Bard. Let a future Ranger job take over the archery part with a crossbow and be done with it. Unhappy marriages of conflicting concepts like this don't make for good results in the long run. I imagine someone will eventually come in and try to bring up lore - I'm well beyond having the patience for arguments like that when the job doesn't deliver well on either front. FFXIV's Bard is a failed Robin Hood/Dragon Age Leliana Concept that needs to address its shortcomings.